TIVERTON — Bill Phillips is used to it now, that first day of class when he tells his students they will build and pilot a boat.

His students know enough by then, about physics, geometry and design, to know that building a boat is difficult, Phillips said. They have learned enough in high school to think he is nuts.

But then they build a boat.

Phillips is a teacher at Tiverton High School, leading students in the woods program, construction trades and boat building.

On a Thursday morning he was in a garage bay at the school, watching as a half dozen students went to work with sanding blocks, smoothing the edges and side rails of a 16-foot flat bottomed Sakonnet River skiff — a classic quahogger's boat — that will be finished and then sold before the students leave for the year.

The boat was half done, the floor and sidewalls built up, the transom in place, the gunwales taking shape before a mahogany rail is bent and fitted into place over the top.

"Our goal is to give the kids some skills in the marine trades," Phillips said. "But, if you want to learn how to work with wood, you can't do any better than building a boat.

"There isn't a true straight line or a square cut in any of this.

"If you are working on an old house in New England, you need to be able to deal with that."

That is the point in Phillips' class and in all the classes at the high school, especially the classes in technical education, according to Edwin Fernandes, the head of the technology and career education department. He also teaches design.

"The whole department is built on a strong foundation that is set down in the ninth grade," he said. "We teach a little of everything that year, an introduction to tech."

By the end of ninth grade, students have learned the basics of drafting and woodworking, as well as the fundamentals of electricity and web design. They get an introduction to how business works.

Through their time in the school, the teachers keep bringing students back to the basics. Zach Fenster's engineering students design boats and bridges that are then produced in wood or through a 3D printer and tested to make sure they are strong or move in a straight line. Cathy Marshall's culinary arts classes cook up red sauce and then write essays, explaining the math and chemistry involved.

Some students work with business teacher Judy Moore to write a business plan to market the sauce.

In Fernandes' class, students are spending their free time designing and building a solar powered electric go-cart.

But the boat gets a lot of attention, teachers admit.

Page 2 of 2 - The class has had boats on display at the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport and students just retrieved a boat that was on display at the Rhode Island Boat Show in Providence at the end of January.

"That was a really great weekend," Phillips said. "Our kids spoke to hundreds of people about our boats and our program.

"This whole project is a great learning experience. The kids learn all these terms that are used in the marine trade — ballast, transom, fore and aft - and they learn how to cut odd angles and make things fit."

And they learn they can do something difficult, Phillips said.

"When we start this project, the kids are hesitant," Phillips said. "They aren't sure then can built a boat that is strong and water tight."

But Phillips sends them down to Nannaquaket Pond, where three of the boats students built are moored for most of the year. He promises them they will ride in the boat they build.